Man Group shares rise as share buyback and profit beat forecasts
Stocks jumped as company announced $100m buyback, twice the amount analysts expected
27 February 2025 - 14:33
byNell Mackenzie
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London — Man Group’s shares rose as much as 5.7% on Thursday after the hedge fund reported that its assets under management grew by about 1% to $168.6bn in 2024 as markets whipsawed.
The shares jumped as the company announced a $100m buyback, twice the amount that analysts had expected, according to a note by JPMorgan.
Man Group’s profit and revenue figures beat expectations while its asset growth was slightly below the anticipated level, said the note.
“The market has fretted about Man’s investment performance but the delivery of better-than-expected performance fees suggests that the market cannot quite measure all it believes it can,” said a note from Rae Maile at Panmure Liberum.
Man Group’s shares were up 3.7% by 9.20am GMT (11.20am).
Against the backdrop of increased market volatility and a rapid rise in long-term rates to start the year, hedge funds levered up in 2024 to boost trading to new heights and trade on US elections and volatility spikes.
London-listed Man Group, which houses many different kinds of trading strategies under one roof, saw strong investment performance from its long-only strategies, which contributed an additional $10.9bn to the firm-wide assets under management, the firm said.
Other strategies, particularly trend after strategies such as its AHL Alpha and AHL Evolution produced mixed returns of a positive 3.2% and negative 6.1%, respectively.
“We were able to capture some quality trends in commodities including agriculturals and in the Mag 7 stocks,” CEO Robyn Grew said, referring to the largest US tech stocks.
She confirmed that the hedge fund had a positive investment performance in cocoa, a large profit maker for trend funds last year as prices surged on supply constraints.
Clear opportunity to catch market trends in sovereign bonds, however, were absent, she added.
“We walked into 2024 with expectations of a number of rate cuts which decreased to two and then were shortly back up to seven in October. This saw markets whipsaw,” said Grew, explaining this hampered trend after strategies generally.
Trend after hedge funds buy into rising markets and sell falling ones, but they rely on prices to travel in one direction and not change.
Trend funds tracked by Societe Generale returned about 3% in 2024.
Hedge funds overall averaged just more than a 10% return for the year, according to PivotalPath, vs 5.7% in the same period in 2023.
Multistrategy hedge funds with many different trading strategies all housed in the same company were the strongest cohort of hedge funds returning 13.6% in 2024, after being the fifth-best performing master strategy in 2023.
Man’s multistrategy fund 1783 returned 14.5%.
Core performance fees rose 72% to $310m, an increase of money that clients pay to Man Group when its investments deliver positive returns.
Firm revenues were hit by a $3.8bn negative currency impact from the strong dollar and $2.1bn in costs from the wind-down of the hedge fund’s US real estate business and capital returned from its packaged loan business.
The firm recorded net outflows of $3.3bn for 2024, driven by the $7bn single client redemption in the third quarter of 2024, the company said.
Asked if Man Group planned further acquisitions, with a European credit manager or direct lending firm, Grew said: “We have made no secret of our desire to grow credit, whether that is organically or inorganically,” but added, the price had to be right.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Man Group shares rise as share buyback and profit beat forecasts
Stocks jumped as company announced $100m buyback, twice the amount analysts expected
London — Man Group’s shares rose as much as 5.7% on Thursday after the hedge fund reported that its assets under management grew by about 1% to $168.6bn in 2024 as markets whipsawed.
The shares jumped as the company announced a $100m buyback, twice the amount that analysts had expected, according to a note by JPMorgan.
Man Group’s profit and revenue figures beat expectations while its asset growth was slightly below the anticipated level, said the note.
“The market has fretted about Man’s investment performance but the delivery of better-than-expected performance fees suggests that the market cannot quite measure all it believes it can,” said a note from Rae Maile at Panmure Liberum.
Man Group’s shares were up 3.7% by 9.20am GMT (11.20am).
Against the backdrop of increased market volatility and a rapid rise in long-term rates to start the year, hedge funds levered up in 2024 to boost trading to new heights and trade on US elections and volatility spikes.
London-listed Man Group, which houses many different kinds of trading strategies under one roof, saw strong investment performance from its long-only strategies, which contributed an additional $10.9bn to the firm-wide assets under management, the firm said.
Other strategies, particularly trend after strategies such as its AHL Alpha and AHL Evolution produced mixed returns of a positive 3.2% and negative 6.1%, respectively.
“We were able to capture some quality trends in commodities including agriculturals and in the Mag 7 stocks,” CEO Robyn Grew said, referring to the largest US tech stocks.
She confirmed that the hedge fund had a positive investment performance in cocoa, a large profit maker for trend funds last year as prices surged on supply constraints.
Clear opportunity to catch market trends in sovereign bonds, however, were absent, she added.
“We walked into 2024 with expectations of a number of rate cuts which decreased to two and then were shortly back up to seven in October. This saw markets whipsaw,” said Grew, explaining this hampered trend after strategies generally.
Trend after hedge funds buy into rising markets and sell falling ones, but they rely on prices to travel in one direction and not change.
Trend funds tracked by Societe Generale returned about 3% in 2024.
Hedge funds overall averaged just more than a 10% return for the year, according to PivotalPath, vs 5.7% in the same period in 2023.
Multistrategy hedge funds with many different trading strategies all housed in the same company were the strongest cohort of hedge funds returning 13.6% in 2024, after being the fifth-best performing master strategy in 2023.
Man’s multistrategy fund 1783 returned 14.5%.
Core performance fees rose 72% to $310m, an increase of money that clients pay to Man Group when its investments deliver positive returns.
Firm revenues were hit by a $3.8bn negative currency impact from the strong dollar and $2.1bn in costs from the wind-down of the hedge fund’s US real estate business and capital returned from its packaged loan business.
The firm recorded net outflows of $3.3bn for 2024, driven by the $7bn single client redemption in the third quarter of 2024, the company said.
Asked if Man Group planned further acquisitions, with a European credit manager or direct lending firm, Grew said: “We have made no secret of our desire to grow credit, whether that is organically or inorganically,” but added, the price had to be right.
Reuters
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